


I Could Fall (Or I Could Fly)

by alianovnaromanova



Series: The Life and Times of Kate Bishop [1]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, God bless Luposphere, Kate is a detective, Kate is amazing, This Is For You, implied/mentioned clintasha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-01-04 16:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12172560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alianovnaromanova/pseuds/alianovnaromanova
Summary: Kate Bishop navigates life as a teenage socialite, handles unexpected discoveries, and finds a whole new branch of her family.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Kate is 13 in the first chapter, and it's 2008. 
> 
> Laura Scott and Laura Barton are the same person. 
> 
> Idk why but I just really liked Laura in AOU but I don't like a lot of the details so I'm fixing it. 
> 
> This was in my google docs as "Kate's a cool detective ayyyyyyyyyy"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are going through some revisions! I love this fic so much and I just want to nurture it as much as I can.

Kate's life turns upside down when her mom dies. She's only thirteen, and she's the only one left at home when her sister Susan runs off to Europe, and her father promptly leaves on a business trip. She’s left alone to pick up the pieces, and she helps the funeral planner plan her mother’s memorial service and burial.  Her father and sister do nothing, and she deals with everything that needs to be done for her mom. She speaks with the people in the funeral home and arranges a wake, calls her relatives to tell them that Eleanor died, and deals with her mom’s lawyer. She arranges flights for her grandparents, 

Her mom's lawyer calls her, and asks her to find her mother's copy of her will. She searches her mom's office, a room of white walls and furniture and gold accents. The place had always felt weird to Kate. Her mom always seemed uncomfortable there, as if she felt that's not where she belonged, and the decoration of the room felt too clean and perfect. It was almost nerve-wracking, it felt as though the second Kate went in there it was only a matter of time before something was stained or messed up. Still, she carefully goes in, searching through her mom's files until she finds the will of Eleanor Bishop, signed with her mother's neat hand.  Because there’s nobody to tell her not to, she reads through it, wondering what her mother’s last wishes were. Most of it makes sense, her and her sister are each left about 40% of her estate, her father is left some shares in Bishop publishing and her half of various properties they co-owned, her parents are left enough to keep them living very comfortably, various charities are given a small chunk and a few loose ends are tied up. The oddest part of the will however, is a sum of four hundred thousand dollars and a property in Iowa left to someone named Laura Scott.

Searching the rest of her mother's files is fruitless. Kate knows that there’s a chance that this is nothing, that this Laura Scott is a distant relative or something, but even that simple theory doesn’t add up. None of her mother’s other relatives are left anything (aside from a sum for her parents, but that’s perfectly normal), so why would a random relative be left a house and four hundred thousand dollars?

She knows that pulling on a thread like this might be a bad idea, but sometimes bad ideas have the best results. She goes to her dad's office next. He locks it typically, but it's a button lock on the knob that's easily picked with a bobby pin, so Kate chooses to see it as more of a suggestion. He has many more files, so it takes hours to go through them, but it ends up being worth her while, as she's able to piece together a story. 

From what she could tell, Laura was her half sister. She was born after a college romance between Derek and Laura’s mom, Jennifer Scott. They break up shortly after, and Derek quickly marries Eleanor, Kate's mom, so Jennifer kept it a secret.  She raises her daughter in Iowa, with the help of her parents, Carol and Leonard. Laura grew up knowing nothing of her father, and only found out in 1996, when her mom died in a bank robbery gone wrong. Laura was sixteen, only a few years older than Kate is now. After her grandparents probably talked to Derek, and he set up a college fund for Laura, in exchange for silence about Laura and Derek’s connection. Eleanor was in the dark about it, and once she found out, was very guilty about how she was essentially the reason why Laura grew up without a father. It explains the will, because that was how rich people deal with things; by throwing money at it.

After a record of a DNA test found in Dereks files confirms it, Kate breaks down, sitting in the middle of her dad’s office, sobbing and shaking, because oh god, her mom is dead. She’s gone and never going to hug her again, or braid her hair, or anything else because her mother is dead. Now Kate feels so alone, because even if she wasn’t around, she was her mom and Kate could pretend she had a loving, perfect mom. And to add to all that, she had a sister, someone that was kept a secret from her for all her life. An older sister, another one, one who was a whole other person and wasn’t raised in the same weird, socialite society Kate grew up in, the same one that shrouded Laura’s identity in secrets and lies. She could be an amazing person who accepted Kate and was a real sister, like the ones Kate had seen on TV.

Or she could hate Kate immediately, resent her because she grew up with a mom and dad and was rich and popular and was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. That was the most terrifying thing, what if Laura was angry at her, what if she wouldn’t even talk to her or anything. Kate would have to live with the knowledge, that she had a sister she didn’t know at all.

Kate has to decide. Does she want to risk it? Reach out and be rejected? Or never do anything and have that be a big what if in her life? She probably shouldn’t be even considering contacting Laura. There had to be some unwritten rule about contacting your potential half sister on facebook, and telling her that she could potentially be her half sister.

Kate however, never followed rules. So she tracked down Laura’s facebook, and sent a friend request.

A day later, Laura accepts, and Kate crafts an awkward message, explaining the entire ordeal, the entire time thinking that this might be the stupidest thing she’s ever done. Something compels her to press send though, so she does, and anxiously waits for a reply.

An hour later, it comes. A phone number, accompanied by the two words: CALL ME. Despite all the alarm bells ringing off in her head, Kate punches in the number and presses CALL. The phone rings a few times, and finally picks up.

"Kate?" A feminine voice asks.

"Last I checked. Laura?"

"You know, after you sent me that friend request, I tried to rationalize it. I thought, 'Hey, maybe it's one of those fake accounts,’ or ‘Probably another Laura Scott that she's looking for.’ But then I remembered reading about your mom and I knew that it had to be deliberate. I knew you had to have found the will, and wanted answers." Laura tells her, sounding stressed.

"Yeah. I had to find Mom's will for the guy who's organizing , and I saw the name I didn’t recognize. I was confused, I did some digging, and I found a lot.”

“How much is a lot?” Laura questions, and Kate knows they’re both walking on eggshells, given the fact that something like this is big and complicated and very important to not completely  mess up. Kate takes a deep breath, and launches into her findings

“I know that your mom and my-our dad met in college, and they dated for awhile, she got pregnant before they broke up, very soon after my mom and um, Derek got married, and you were born shortly after.” Kate tells her, trying to just spit out the facts and not start crying because oh god, her dad left a young pregnant woman to fend for herself, while he got ultra rich. “I also know about the college fund he set up.”

“That may have been one of the best things to come out of this, I was able to actually go to a good school and get my degree.” Laura tells her. “Are you close to going to college?”

“I’m in the 8th grade, so no.” Kate says, “But when I do I want to do computer stuff.”

“Like coding and programming?” Laura asks.

“Something like that. I want to go to MIT.” Kate tells her proudly.

“That’s going to be tough, but you have time to work hard and get in.”

“How long has it been since you graduated college?” Kate asks her.

“It’s been 7 or 8 years? I’m 28 years old now.”

“Is it worse than school?” Kate questions nervously.

“Nah, it’s somewhat better, at least according to me. Other people might tell you different.”

“Did you go far from home?”

“I was from Iowa, and I went to Brown in Connecticut.” Laura tells her. “Stayed here after I graduated, and then I met my boyfriend, and we’ve lived here ever since.”

“Ew, boys are disgusting.” Kate teases.

“What, you’re not at your ‘boy crazy’ stage yet?” Laura responds, using the same light tone Kate had.

“I had one crush on a boy when I was like, 10 and that lasted until I saw him try to eat a hot dog covered in yogurt and stale cheetos and he barfed all over our teacher.” Kate deadpans. “That was pretty much it.”

“Oh my god, was he ok?” Laura’s laugh is light and almost giggly, like champagne bubbles.

“It was horrible, but yeah. He was legit the weirdest kid I’ve ever met, but he was pretty nice.”

“You’ll meet some weird people in school, I can guarantee you.”

The conversation lasts another while, Kate learns about Laura’s family, Kate tells Laura about Susan and their dad, and they discuss movies and find that they both read the Harry Potter books, discussing the last book, and the movie coming out the next year.

The phone call finally winds down after it hits its third hour, when Laura’s boyfriend gets home. She can hear him ask who she’s talking to, and Kate smiles at that, knowing Laura has a lot to talk to him about.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Laura's wedding! 
> 
> Alternate chapter title: Kate kicks ass at wedding planning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited as of 10/28

At the age of 15, Kate’s life has gotten much better than its was two years prior. She still misses her mom, but she gained a new sister in Laura, and she’s welcomed into Laura’s family with open arms. Laura’s grandparents are sweet to her, taking her in and treating her like another grandchild.

Laura’s grandfather Lawrence is a quiet man with wire rimmed glasses and a midwestern accent, and he seems to love reading. When Kate first met him, Laura had brought her into what she called “The Library”, where Lawrence (‘call me Larry”) was sitting, reading a book about world war one. He’s sat in a plush armchair, stationed in the corner of the room, surrounded by bookshelves of what looks like history book after history book. It’s such a large collection, that every shelf is labeled with different categories of books like “Medieval Britain”, “Age of Exploration”, and “Industrial Revolution”. When Kate gives him a book about Theodore Roosevelt and expresses interest in the second World War, he starts giving her little tidbits about the books he reads, and when he finds out that Kate is not just Japanese but also Filipina, she notices that he’s started reading books on the history of the Philippines. Laura tells her that’s his way of trying to get to know people, when she started showing interest in things as a kid, he’d read about it, even if it was things like the Harry Potter books or the Spice Girls.

Laura’s grandmother, Carol, is a kind woman with long hair that she almost always wore in braids or buns, and she is the quintessence of doting grandmothers. Even when she first met her, Carol always worried over Kate, trying to feed her as much as possible, asking if she’s getting enough sleep and a healthy diet, and always asking her if school is going alright for her. A few months after she meets Carol, she gets a package in the mail, containing a hand-knit blanket, a book about women of World War II (wrapped in brown paper and labeled “HELLO KATHERINE YOU’LL LIKE THIS BOOK IT’S ABOUT WORLD WAR TWO AND WOMEN WHO FOUGHT IN IT FROM LARRY”), and three packs of Oreos, which Kate offhandedly mentioned enjoying when she visited. The gesture makes Kate tear up a little bit, and she makes a note to herself to send some nice things from New York along with a thank you card when she has the time.

Her father has also been pretty good about his interactions with Kate, not trying to interfere too much with anything she does and letting her live with Laura during the summers. Susan is her usual politely distant self, she sends occasional emails from college in France, and invites her to visit during one of her school vacations, which Kate declines, knowing very well that she is only offering out of kindness and not the desire to see Kate.  

* * *

 

“No way.” Kate says, baffled at the ring Laura shows her. “He proposed?”

“Yeah,” Laura tells her, sounding almost giddy, “He took me to a cute little bakery and then when he was going through his pockets to find his wallet, he pulls out the ring box, tells me to hold it, and continues to rummage around his pockets before he realized what he did.”

“Well that might be the most Barney type thing I’ve ever heard.” Kate tells her, smiling. “I’m so happy for you!”

“Thank you!” Laura hugs her for the third time today, “Would you be my maid of honor?”

“Wait really?”

“Yeah,” Laura tells her. “I would really love it if you would. You won’t have a ton of responsibilities, I’d just want you to come wedding dress shopping with me and help out a little bit with wedding planning”

Kate considers it for a minute, then smiles, realizing that this is her sister asking her to be a part of one of the biggest evens of her life. "I'd love to, Laura."

* * *

 

Over the next few weeks, Kate and Laura work with Laura’s friends Bobbi, Jessica and Carol, and the four of them go through all the wedding details. They go bridesmaid dress shopping and wedding dress shopping (Laura’s dress is tea length, a soft creamy color, and has a gold shimmer to it, and Kate thinks it’s perfect for Laura). Kate offers the house in Greenwich for them to use, and Laura finally accepts after seeing pictures of the place. Jess and Carol, who both have time consuming full-time jobs, oversee the ceremony, while Bobbi and Kate coordinate the reception and all the services that needed hiring. Over this time, Kate and Bobbi get very close, and start to text every day, even if it’s not about wedding stuff. They plan the bridal shower and the bachelorette party, which consists of a matinee showing of Mamma Mia on Broadway and then a trip to Denny’s, which both Kate and Bobbi know Laura will love.

As the day of the wedding approaches, Kate gets more and more anxious that something very bad is going to happen. The closest thing to a disaster is when the best man's date threatens to dismember him at the rehearsal dinner, but Laura and Barney aren’t concerned, and the best man (Barney’s brother Clint) laughs at the woman’s threats. The day of the wedding, everything goes according to plan. Kate walks down the aisle right before Laura, who’s being escorted by her grandparents, one on each arm. Already waiting at the altar is Barney, Clint, the groomsmen and the bridesmaids, and the officiate. The ceremony is simple. Laura’s grandparents cry, and Kate finds herself tearing up a little bit when the final vows are said.

The reception is wonderful, Kate spends most of her time hanging out with the best man, Clint. They bond over being younger siblings, their love of Dog Cops, and they easily develop a rapport of joking insults and sarcastic banter. Kate dances with Bobbi and her sister Susan, who came to the wedding, despite Kate’s assumptions that she would go along with their father’s course of action, cancelling at the last minute. She even brings her boyfriend, and confesses to Kate that she thinks he’s going to propose to her (She’s proven right less than a month later, and Kate gets a text with a picture of the ring with the caption “I said yes!”). Laura and Barney are adorable the entire ceremony, and they really seem to only have eyes for each other. Kate and Clint both make short speeches, Clint’s praises Laura and Barney and wishes them the best, while Kate’s pokes fun at the two and tells the two that they’re perfect for each other.  The cake is chocolate with an amazing marshmallow filling, and the entrees are well cooked, and Kate is very happy she made sure the catering company was competent and well-reviewed on yelp. The band that she and Bobbi hired plays the right amount of upbeat songs and slow songs, and Kate is glad that she put the thought into some of the song requests she made. She’s very happy with the little touches she and Bobbi made, like the handwritten place cards, the adorable succulent centerpieces, and Laura’s bouquet, which the two planned and put together themselves.

The night ends quietly, and most of the bridal party and some of the groomsmen end up in Bobbi and Kate’s shared hotel suite when they all go up there to toast to Laura and Barney, who had gone to the honeymoon suite about an hour earlier. Kate and Jess conk out on the couch, with each other’s feet in their face. Clint and one the groomsmen (Gil? Phil?) are sprawled out on the bed, Clint hugging a Kate’s laptop for some reason and Gil-or-Phil hugging a giant throw pillow. Carol is asleep in the armchair, covered by one of the groomsmen’s coats. Bobbi’s brother Ben is curled up in a blanket burrito in the corner of the room, while Bobbi and the only female groomsmen (apparently, she insisted) Maria are lying sideways across Bobbi’s bed, their feet hanging off the side. Kate wakes up at one point and looks around, and upon seeing that everyone seems okay, she turns off the TV which was playing house hunter reruns, and falls asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it might be a while before the next chapter, I think I have to rework it a good bit so it fits with the story and some of the details of the story. 
> 
> Please leave kudos, comment, etc.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate deals with the battle of New York, goes to college, and befriends Clint Barton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited as of 10/28

Kate is 17 when Hell rains down on New York. She's in the Hamptons on a family vacation, and is left to watch new reports of the event while her city is torn apart by aliens who rained down from the heavens. 

Her immediate reaction is to go for her purse and car keys, wanting to help in the direct aftermath.

Before she can get out of the door, her father stops her: “Kate, you can’t go into the city now!”

“Dad, people are being hurt and they’re dying, I want to help!” Kate explains.

“It’s dangerous, there are vagrants and super people running around there! What if you were photographed? You’d look reckless, and I’d look like a terrible parent!”

She gristles at this. Of course, her father cares about her image. After all, she's his daughter, and if she made any negative headlines, it would reflect badly on him, on Bishop Publishing. Most parents would worry about the danger of doing something like that, but Derek doesn’t really care about Kate beyond paternal obligation and the knowledge that her image is connected to his.

She's only allowed to return to New York after the battle is long over, after the wounded are taken to hospitals and the major damage is starting to be repaired. Derek only allows her to volunteer at a shelter, where a photographer follows her around and has her pose with shelter goers and other volunteers, and Kate is mortified, she hates the entire event. She does manage to quietly slip a check for the shelter to one of the coordinators, and quietly leaves.

She's able to do more of what she wants to when she turns 18. She's away at college in Boston, studying computer science. She takes time to visit Laura and Barney in Connecticut on the weekends, and goes there for vacations and any breaks she gets. She hates that the drive takes two hours, but she passes the time with audiobooks and playlists on her iPod.

She loves spending time with Laura, and she loves her nieces Barbara and Phillipa. Babs is nearing two years old, and she takes after her father in both looks and personality, having red hair, a crooked smile, and a tendency to run face first into everything and never get even the slightest bit injured. Pippa is only a few months old, and she takes after her mom, with tufts of light brown hair growing in and sharing her mom’s sweet nature.

When she goes back to every few weeks, she also gets to see Clint, Barney's younger brother. Somehow, he's one of her best friends, even though he's a few months shy of thirty (nearly 12 years older than her) and works for the FBI (like Barney), making him busy for long periods of time. When he’s not busy with whatever he does in the FBI, he lives in an apartment complex in Bed Stuy. They hang out whenever they can in both NYC and Boston, they binge TV shows and explore the take-out culture of both cities, soon developing a comprehensive list of their favorite places. They are both coffee addicts, although Clint is so much worse off than her (he drinks gross instant stuff straight out of the pot, which makes Kate gag). They bond over their common love for archery when Clint finds out Kate took archery in school for years.

Within a year of hanging out with him semi regularly, it quickly becomes clear that dopey, goofball, tried to microwave an unopened can of ravioli when he was sleep deprived Clint is also the famous Hawkeye that rose to fame after New York. She doesn't ever say anything, she figures he'll tell her when he's ready. The fact that Hawkeye is associated with a shady government organization that was behind the most powerful team of heroes is reason enough to avoid pulling on that thread.

Instead, they watch TV shows and discuss pseudo-philosophical questions that are usually incredibly weird and have literally no benefit in being answered ("If the wand chooses the wizard, does that mean that the wand is sentient? And like, Is every magical thing sentient?”). She enjoys time with him, he has a way of looking at things with both the most cynical and optimistic point of view, picking out what in the world is worth embracing, what’s worth fighting for or against, and what’s worth just avoiding. He’s able to see through people’s bullshit and see them for who they are, not who they present themselves to be (He proves his adeptness at this when he happens to meet Kate’s father, who does the whole “nice family man act”, and once he’s out of earshot, tells Kate, “No offence, but he’s kind of a piece of shit.”). She finds that as time goes on, it starts to sting a bit that Clint doesn’t trust her with his secret, but she tries to rationalize it. But he seems to trust her in other ways. In the beginning of their friendship he refuses to fall asleep in her presence or eat anything Kate offers him, and he always squirmed when she uses any kind of sharp or potentially weapony items around him, as if bracing for an attack. Soon enough, he starts to trust her more, taking food she offers him (and some she doesn’t offer) and not getting anxious when she uses kitchen knives, and even crashes at her place a few times.

In May of 2014, A few days before her graduation (because Kate manages to cram a four-year degree into two years), Clint calls her for a favor, and turns her world upside down. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos, Comment, Bookmark, show ya girl some love.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SHIELD falls, and it's up to Kate to get Laura and the kids somewhere safe.

The call from Clint is terrifying. He tells her the basics, his bosses are corrupt, he needs to get out of there, Barney was on a mission and is hiding out until the worst is over, and they need Kate to get Laura and the kids someplace safe. She’s provided with a code for the alarms system of his apartment and instructions to find the safe. He tells her the line isn’t secure for long, thanks her for helping, and hangs up.

It takes Kate a few minutes to process, but she starts driving within half an hour, taking the time to process, and tossing cash, some clothes, a blanket, painkillers, and many other essentials she thinks might be needed. She gives into her gut and packs her pepper spray and some sleeker kitchen knives. She also digs up her old phones (Kate is a bit of a tech snob, she has several old phones and laptops stored in a box under her bed), and plans to stop at Walmart for disposable sim cards. She grabs all the non-perishable foods in her apartment just in case. Clint tells her that she needs to be as cautious as she can, so she makes a single withdrawal from her account close to her house, and turns off her GPS and her phone, settling for using her old iPod to occupy her time. She can’t do much about her car, but it’s mundane enough that it won’t draw attention. She stops at a gas station to buy a map for the drive to the safe house.

~~~

Kate arrives at Laura’s by 4 am, and Laura takes a few minutes to get to the door, finally opening it, sticking a gun in Kate’s face, before she recognizes her.

“Oh, it’s you!” Laura exclaims, pulling her in the house. “Sorry, I’ve been on edge ever since I saw the news report about the triskelion, and then the data dump happened, and I’ve been freaking out.”

“That’s why I’m here, Clint sent me to get you to a safe house.” Kate tells Laura. “You guys have a safe, right?”

“Um, yeah, it’s in the basement, but Barney was never able to get it open. We just put a bunch of storage boxes in front of it.” Laura motions to the door that leads to the basement.

“Clint gave me the code, maybe he and Barney kept it a secret for some reason?” Kate tells her, walking down the basement stairs, as Laura follows. 

“Well, he and Clint are pretty damn paranoid, I wouldn’t put it past them.” Laura says, “I could do without the lying part though.” She rolls her eyes at the antics of her husband and brother-in-law.

Kate gestures to the wall, which was concealed by stacks of carboard boxes, labeled neatly in Laura’s handwriting. “This it?” She asks.

“You mean the safe my husband lied to me about?” Laura asks, “Yeah.” She gets to work immediately, pulling boxes off the top of their piles, and setting them aside. Kate joins in, pushing the last few poxes blocking the door to the side, revealing the safe. Laura was right to believe Barney, it looked like the safe hadn’t been touched in the last fifty years. Kate tries the code anyway, and surprisingly, there’s a click.

“Laura, want to help me pull this open?” Kate asks her. With the two of them strong arming the door, they’re able to pry it open.

The safe is full of bags of cash, extensive first aid kits, non-perishable food, burner sim cards, and even a cache of weapons. There’s several guns, knives, and not entirely surprising, a bow and an assortment of arrows. Knowing there might be a need, Kate grabs the bow and a quiver stuffed with arrows. Assuming it’s Clint’s she adjusts the tension and draw length, making sure it works for her. She had never been more grateful for the archery classes she took for a gym requirement in high school. She’s not good with guns, they have bad memories for her, but she sees Laura go for one. She checks that the safety is on, grabs a leg holster and straps it and the gun to her leg. She handles it with grace and comfortable familiarity.

“Did Barney teach you how to use one of those?” Kate asks her, having a hard time with the idea that her sweet, harmless sister could handle a firearm.

“A few weeks before the wedding he finally told me about the dangers of his job, and he wanted to teach me how to shoot a gun, but it took a few weeks for me to agree to learn to use one. But I finally did, I knew it would make him feel a lot safer, knowing I could defend myself.” Laura tells her, smiling a little at the memory of it. “He was so cute, he made me go over the components of a gun, and all the gun laws and gun safety rules before he actually let me go on the range, and he was just so nervous, I don’t know how he didn’t faint when I first shot it,”

“You married a giant dork.” Kate tells her.

“It’s great, right?”

~~~

They’re on the road an hour after the kids are woken up. Kate packs up Laura’s car with all the essentials, and Laura gets the little ones all packed up and ready to leave. It’s hard, as the kids are four and two, so they’re old enough to be able to ask questions, but too young to understand that they probably shouldn’t be. The four of them listen to oldies on the radio, Kate humming along while Laura sits next to her, intently focused on driving.

The safe house is in Iowa, but a pretty long distance from Lawrence and Carol’s. They take shifts and drive well into the evening, occasionally stopping at gas stations and roadside McDonalds. They finally stop just outside of Cleveland, renting an ugly motel room with a beat up mini fridge and a shower that barely worked. But they were able to get a night’s sleep, take a lukewarm shower, and be back on the road by 8 in the morning.

The driving gets boring, but whoever isn’t driving reads to the rest of the car, and they get through the first Harry Potter book by the time they hit Iowa.

Nearly two days after they leave Laura’s house, they finally get to the safe house, which Kate is surprised to find is the house that was left to Laura in Kate’s mother’s will. She had forgotten the address, but she remembered the pictures of the colonial farmhouse, with the wraparound porch and the barn out back.

“I sold the house years ago, I needed the money to pay off my student loans, I can’t believe I’m here again.”

“Barney bought it last year, it was supposed to be a five-year anniversary present.” Kate tells her. Laura distantly smiles at the thought of her husband buying her an entire house, missing him more now than she had since he left on a long-term mission.

“You know, it’s what brought us together, in a way.” Kate says, smiling at the memory of that first phone call nearly 6 years before.

“I guess it did” Laura wraps her arms around Kate, squeezing her tight. “I couldn’t be happier that you found me, by the way.”

(It’s moments like these that make Kate fall in love with living. Just standing with her sister, feeling like she belongs somewhere, and giving her the feeling that everything is going to be ok, if only she can keep having rare moments of love and happiness like this.)

They take another moment to stand there, hugging and taking comfort in each other amidst the craziness around them. They go for the kids when Babs starts screaming, and Pippa-ever the impressionable little sister-decides it’s her personal mission to scream louder.

The house is massive. It was built for a large family originally, and there were additions since then. The bedrooms are small, all the third-floor rooms barely fit a single bed. But there’s 10 of them, which is It’s sparsely furnished, but it has all the essentials. Laura and Kate make quick work of unpacking the car, and they settle the kids in for bed by 9. Kate and Laura stay up a while, they wash linens and clean the kitchen, finally finishing at midnight. They decide to sleep on the ground floor, opting to share a room. They’re still uneasy in this giant house, and they’re somewhat wary about the world and threats around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Babs and Pippa are irish twins, theyre about 11 months apart.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate hosts a makeshift sleepover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chapter!

It’s been a month since Kate and Laura ran away to the farm in Iowa. There’s no contact from Barney or Clint, Laura and Kate don’t know who to trust, and there’s almost no new information about SHIELD in the news. At one point, Kate realizes that Barney and Clint could be gone for a long time, and neither she nor Laura knows when, or (and Kate shudders at the thought of it) _ if _ they’ll see the Barton brothers again. It’s terrible to think about, but finding the hopeful or positive side of a bad situation was never one of Kate’s strong suits (She doesn’t dream of saying anything like that to Laura though. It probably wouldn’t go over very well, telling your sister she may never see her husband again because he could have been killed. So, she prepares for things to go poorly, and allows Laura to remain optimistic). Kate generally took a more negative view of the world, preparing for the worst and being pleasantly surprised when things didn’t go bad.

They’ve been isolated from the outside world. There’s a radio that they listen to the news on, but there’s no TV. Kate made a trip into town in a pick-up truck stored in the barn, picking up some food and toiletries, but she spends a half hour shopping and barely gets to interact with other people in the interest of getting back to the house quickly.

The solitude and peace end 46 days after they get to the safe house, at about three in the morning. The kids are upstairs in bed, Kate and Laura are still sharing the downstairs bedroom  (They don’t mind though, it’s kind of nice to have someone there when they have nightmares).

Kate wakes at the sound of a car on the gravel in the driveway. She peeks out the bedroom door into the living room, and the headlights she can see in the distance through the gauzy lace curtains confirm her suspicion. Somebody’s here.

Waking Laura, Kate tells her to go upstairs, and make sure that she and the kids are ready to run at a moment’s notice. She goes to the safe in the corner of the room, grabs her bow and quiver, and looks at Laura, who is putting her slippers on and slipping on a sweatshirt. They nod at each other, and Kate goes out first, going to the front door, while Laura slips upstairs. Kate loads up her bow, and hides behind the couch, waiting for someone to come in the door. She waits with bated breath as the lock is picked, and the door is slowly opened. She jumps out then.

“Hands up.” She tells the intruder, a tall, skinny woman with a hood hiding her features. The woman stops, and slowly puts her hands up.

“Are you really going to shoot me?” the woman mocks.

Kate responds by letting loose an arrow, a few inches from the woman’s head. “Try me. Next one goes in your eye.” She snips back. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”

The visitor slowly pulls off her hood, revealing the smirking face of Natasha Romanoff, Clint’s kind of girlfriend. Kate lowers her bow, but doesn’t unload or put it down.

“Nice aim, Hawkeye” Natasha jokes, and begins to kick off her boots.

“How do I know you’re not Hydra?” Kate asks her.

Natasha digs in her pocket for a minute, pulling out a phone and calling someone, probably Clint. “Hey, I’m at the farm, and your protegee is wielding one of your bows and threatening to shoot me. Can you tell her that I’m not Hydra?” She looks at Kate pointedly, listens to the other line, and then puts the phone on speaker.

“Katie!” Clint’s voice comes over the line, sounding exhausted but still as upbeat as always. “Nat’s not Hydra, she's on our side, and she needs a safe place to stay.”

“Uh, I don’t think there will be enough beds, unless Pippa and Babs bunk together…” Kate begins.

“No need, there’s a few air mattresses in the barn, in the first stable.” He tells her. “Bobbi picked up Barney and they’ll be there in a few hours, and I’ll be coming in soon too. There may be a few others, we’re short on options, but I’ll call and let you know.”

“Are there enough linens and mattresses for that?” Kate asks, worried about how she and Laura were going to fit this many guests.

“Barely, but Barn will be taking Laura on a supply run slash date when he gets back, they’ll get what we need.”

“Thanks Clint. Get here safe, I need to discuss this whole Hawkeye thing with you. You’re not getting away with not telling me.” Kate jokingly lectures.

“Got it, see you then.” They hang up, and Natasha smiles at Kate.

“It’s good to see you, Kate. Where’s Laura?” Natasha asks her.

“I sent her upstairs to get the kids ready in case we had to run.”

Natasha smiles at her. “Smart. You’re pretty good with that bow. Did Clint teach you?”

Kate scoffs at that. “Are you kidding? He didn’t even say anything about working for SHEILD until he called me and asked me to get Laura here. I’ve taken archery for my gym requirement since the 7th grade. I got good at it”

“I can see that, Hawkeye.” Natasha jokes, nudging her shoulder with hers. Kate rolls her eyes at that, and proceeds up the stairs. 

“Laura.” Kate calls down the hallway, “It’s ok, Natasha’s here.” 

Laura pokes her head out of Pippa’s room. “Shh, Pippa’s still asleep, I plan to keep her that way.” She creeps out of the room, quietly closing the door. “Hey Natasha.” Laura opens her arms to Natasha, and the redhead obliges, allowing Laura to hug her. 

“It’s good to see you Laura.” Natasha pulls away and looks her in the eye, squeezing her arm and smiling sadly at her. “I’m sorry you had to uproot your life and kids because of me.” She says somewhat sheepishly. “It may not seem like it, but-”

Laura cuts her off and hugs her tighter. “It’s alright, I understand the need for it. In order for HYDRA’s secrets to be exposed, so did SHIELD’s.” 

When they separate, Natasha smiles at Laura. “Thank you. I needed that.” Laura snakes her arm around Natasha’s waist in a comfortably affectionate manner. 

“Are you hungry?” She asks, naturally slipping into Mother Hen mode, “I need to get Babs off to sleep, and then I can-” 

Kate interrupts quietly, “I got it, don’t worry.” Laura mouths a silent  _ thank you  _ towards her, and the two older women make their way down the stairs, as Kate goes into Babs’ room.

“Auntie Kate?” The little girl asks in drowsy confusion, sitting straight up in bed. 

“Hey Babbles, it’s ok, you can go back to sleep.” Kate whispers, making her way to her niece’s bedside. “Are you going to be able to fall asleep again?” 

“I dunno,” she says, and reaches her hand out to Kate, “Can you stay with me?” 

Kate brushes a lock of hair off Babs’ forehead, “Alright, wanna scooch a bit?” Babs smiles and nods, moving over and making room for Kate in the bed. Kate moves up next to her, and Babs cuddles into Kate, and seems to relax almost immediately. Kate lets herself relax too, and soon the two are falling fast asleep. 

 

A beam of sunlight shining in Kate’s eye wakes her up. She looks down at Barbara’s still sleeping form, and slithers her way out of the bed, careful not to wake her. She closes the heavy green curtains hanging in the window, and makes her way downstairs. 

She finds Natasha awake at the kitchen table, typing furiously at a clunky laptop. She looks up when Kate walks down the stairs, and lazily waves at her. 

“Hey Natasha.” Kate greets, making her way to the kitchen sink to start a pot of coffee. “Want some?” She asks, holding up the pot. 

“Thanks, that sounds amazing.” Natasha smiles at her. “Hey, do you want to see something cool?” She asks, angling the laptop towards Kate, revealing a list of names. 

“Who are these people?” Kate asks, “There has to be at least 200 of them.”

“This is a list of Hydra operatives who have been arrested by law enforcement agents, updated daily. About 5% are high ranking members, who we knew would be harder to find than lower level foot soldiers.” Natasha tells her. “There’s still so many more. We estimate a couple thousand Hydra operatives worldwide, but there’s no way of knowing until all the shield files are sorted through, and even then-” 

“Not everything that happened will be chronicled in the files.” Kate finishes. “How long will tracking down all these people take?” 

“Could be a few months, could be a few years. I don’t know how we’re going to do it, not without SHIELD’s resources and organization.” Natasha looks dejected at the idea. 

“Well, maybe you can find that elsewhere.” Kate suggests. 

“I’m not sure there are any government agencies that would agree to work on this.” 

“Does it have to be a government agency?” Kate asks, a seed of an idea planting itself in her mind.

Natasha looks at her somewhat suspiciously. “What are you thinking?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ended on a little bit of a cliffhanger of sorts.  
> but Kate and her pals will be back in my Age of Ultron rewrite

**Author's Note:**

> Just A Bit Of Extra Info:  
> -This fic will be about three or four chapters.  
> -It's a prequel to a rewrite of AOU, which will include 100% more Hawkeye  
> -I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up, but hopefully soon.


End file.
